Major limitations of flavoring of nuts such as deep fat fried/dry roasted cashew nuts/peanuts with powdered spices are: (1) presence of thermo resistant bacterial load, which creates safety problems during storage. (2) Non-uniformity of the flavor quality (3) reduced impact of natural spice flavor, and (4) rapid loss of aroma during storage and presence of intense colored spots randomly distributed throughout the surface of the nut. In order to sustain a continuous demand for spiced nuts it is necessary to develop alternate flavorings as well as well as methods of application. The problems encountered by using powdered spices can be overcome to a large extent by developing suitable method of using spice oleoresins to flavor the processed nuts. By definition, the oleoresin is the total soluble extractives of a material in a specified solvent. In flavor work the best oleoresin is that which is a concentrate of all the flavor components (aroma, taste, pungency, and related sensory factors) and which truly recreates, when diluted, the sensory quality of the original natural material. Oleoresins do not have many of the disadvantages inherent in the use of powdered spices in terms of flavored quality, uniformity, and separation of storage. At the same time oleoresin offer convenience, while using in food industry or large-scale preparation. The work reported in this patent gives a detailed account of use of oleoresins for flavoring of deep fat fried/dry roasted cashew nuts.
Reference may be made to 1988 U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,865, in which an adhesive for adhering flavoring which is a mixture of a reducing sugar preferable lactose and a maltodextrin. The adhesive is particularly useful for coating peanuts with a dry honey coating providing honey coated and salted nuts. In the present method adhesives are not used.
Reference may be made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,304, 1990, describing a process for flavoring edible nuts which comprises roasting of nuts, partially cooling the nuts to about 56° C. to 92° C., applying a volatile flavoring agent and blending the nuts until the flavor agent is absorbed by the nuts. This patent refers to only volatile flavorings where as oleoresins contain non-volatiles also.
Reference may be made to 1993 U.S. Pat. No. 5,194,278, which relates to edible cores, especially nuts (peanuts, cashews etc) having a desirable fruit flavoring. More particularly the invention relates to edible cores which are prepared by coating with an adhesive solution containing a source of fruit flavoring and then roasting, to provide a snack having desired toasted taste and appearance and a fruit flavoring the present invention does not make use of adhesive solutions.
Reference may be made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,061,499, which describes the coating the raw nuts (peanuts, cashews etc) with an adhesive solution containing honey, corn syrup, sucrose, carbohydrate gum and water followed by a coating of powdered sugar, roasting the nuts preferably in oil, and then applying a coating of a dry mixture of sugar and salt. The final coating is tightly adherent after roasting. Present invention relates to a single stage coating without using adhesive.
Reference may be made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,939,119, which describes a process for coating nuts by immersing the nuts in a molten edible material to coat the nuts with molten edible material, separating the excess molten edible material and then cooling the coated nuts to solidify the molten edible materials. The present invention does not involve coating by immersion.
Reference may be made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,093,139, relating the to a method of preparing roasted sunflower shells containing seeds having a generally uniform coating of a flavoring agent. A liquid flavor containing a coating solution is used in the form of a spray. The present invention does not use a coating solution.
Reference may be made to 1987 U.S. Pat. No. 4,692,342, describing a process for honey-roasting nuts by applying a predusting of a minor amount of an adhesive, film-forming material, honey and water; enrobing the adhesive coated nuts with a dry mixture of honey sugar and salt; and subjecting the coated nuts to roasting, preferably air roasting. Present process does not use any dusting material or film forming material.
Reference may be made 1979 U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,545, which describes the coating nuts with the combination of honey and water followed by enrobing with a dry mixture of sugar and starch and the nuts are then roasted. The present process does not relate to use of honey or sugar or starch.
Reference may be made to 1987 U.S. Pat. No. 4,692,342, that describes the storage stability of prepared peanuts/cashew nuts by applying a pre-dusting of minor amount of an adhesive and coating material and the product was air roasted. But the present process does not contain any pre-dusting material or any coating material and here the product is not air roasted it is deep fat fried and flavored.
Reference may be made to 1988 U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,248, relates to the a process for preparing dry roasting nuts, comprising applying a uniform coating of a starch to raw nuts, applying, a uniform coating of a gelatin solution to the starch coated nuts by applying a coating of a seasoning mix to the coated nuts, and roasting the resulting nuts. But in this present invention the nuts are not roasted after flavor addition.